Products in this catalogue
TERMS & CONDITIONS These Booking Conditions set out the terms on which you contract with us for the arrangement and delivery of travel arrangements for your trip. By making a booking with us, you acknowledge that you have read, understood ‘and agree to be bound by these Booking Conditions. We reserve the right to change these Booking Conditions at ‘any time prior to you making a booking request. “You" and “Your” means all persons named in a booking including anyone who is added or substituted at a later date). We", us’, “our” and “Bench Africa” means Souther Cross Safaris Australia Pty Ltd trading as Bench Africa, BOOKINGS ‘A booking request is accepted when we issue a written booking confirmation fand you have paid your deposit Itis at this point that a contract between us and you comes into existence subject to these Booking Conditions. We reserve the right to deciine any booking at our discretion. No employee of Bench Africa other than a director has the authority to vary or omit any of these Booking Conditions or to promise any discount, refund or credit ‘SERVICES The services we provide to you are limited to (a) the arrangement and coordination of your travel arrangements; and (b) the delivery of travel arrangements which we directly control. This includes (often significant) work undertaken prior to travel to arrange and coordinate the delivery of your travel arrangements. PRICES & EXCLUSIONS Prices stated are in Australian Dollars (SAUD) and are current at the time of publication. The price includes ‘accommodation, transportation and other inclusions as per the published itinerary. Typically, prices are based ‘on two people traveling together. Solo traveller supplements may be applicable. Special offer pricing has already been applied to the website pricing displayed, unless itis stated otherwise. International and domestic airfares, airport/hotel transfers, port taxes, city taxes and security charges are not included unless specifically stated. Costs associated with passports, visas, vaccinations, insurance, meals (other than those stipulated), emergency evacuation costs, gratuities, laundry, additional beverages and consumables and all ters of a personal nature are not included. PRICE SURCHARGES ‘We reserve the right to surcharge the cost of your booked travel arrangements prior to commencement for circumstances beyond our control such as currency devaluation, fuel or air fare surcharges, or the imposition of new or amended Government charges (i. VAT). Should this occur at any time until departure date, you will be notified as soon as possible, and regardless of deposit or total payment having been made, any increase is to be paid by the client. If such increase is unacceptable, the client may cancel the booking, though, in so doing, is stil liable to pay any cancellation charges imposed by our suppliers. While every effort has been made to ensure prices are accurate, please use the brochure as a guideline only, as rates are subject to change. ‘We will not surcharge for currency fluctuations once full payment has been received by us. DEPOSIT ‘A 25% deposit per pane enue within 7 days (unless otherwise stated) of us accepting your booking. The deposit represents a fee payable to us for services associated with the processing and confirmation of your book ard any corto on travel arrangements that we may provide to you. Because these services are provided as soon as we confirm your booking, the deposit is non-refundable other than where we cancel your travel arrangements for reasons other than Force Majeure (see below). Please noe that we may not ol any serves fr you until we reoehe payment of your depos, meaning that services may become unavailable or prices may increase, in which case you wil be responsible for paying the inreaeed price, and we wil not be response services become vnevllebe LATE BOOKINGS jookings made within 30 days of travel from Australia will incur a late booking fee of AUS100 and full payment will be required immediately BOOKING FI ‘A booking fee of AUS100 will be charged for arrangements such as hotels and car hire not forming part of a package with a minimum stay of three nights required. FINAL PAYMENT Payment in full must be received no less than 60 days before commencement of your trip. We are under no obligation to remind you of a payment becoming due. If we fail to receive a payment from you by the due date for payment in clear funds, then this will be deemed a cancellation by you (see below). Note: some trips may require payment {nln ful payment) eater orn adtonal instalments and his wl be advised with the booking Contrnaton. For late bookings (bookings within 60 days of departure), full payment is required at the time of request. You acknowledge that we may not be able to confirm services, in which case we will provide you with a refund CANCELLATIONS BY YOU Covid-19 credit redemptions If: (@) we issued you with a credit due to your original travel arrangements being disrupted by Covid-19 and associated restrictions; and (b) you have redeemed that credit for new travel arrangements; then (c) you agree that we will not be obliged to refund you the value of the credit if you cancel your new travel arrangements. If you cancel travel arrangements that have a value which exceeds the value of your credit (Excess Payment), then we will refund you the Excess Payment, less cancellation fees in accordance with the table below, calculated from the date which we receive written notice of cancellation More than 90 days before commencement: 25% of the Excess Payment 90 days to 60 days before commencement: 50% of the Excess Payment Within 59 days or no show 100% of the Excess Payment Some tours and arrangements may impose a higher non-refundable deposit - please check at time of booking Note any Gorilla and Chimp permits for tours in Rwanda and Uganda are to be paid in full at time of booking and are non-tefundable. Final balance of payment must be received no later than 60 days prior to departure. We are under no obligation to remind you of a payment becoming due ‘New or changed quarantine requirements If after we confirm your booking: (a) new or changed quarantine requirements are in imposed by government authorities either in a destination you are due to visit or in your home State or county and these remain in effect 60 days before commencement of travel arrangements booked with us; and (b) these new or changed ‘quarantine requirements make it reasonably impractical for you to travel; then (c) you may give us written notice to cancel your trip not less than 45 days prior to commencement of the first arrangement, If you cancel travel arrangements in these circumstances, then we will refund payments made by you less: (a) unrecoverable third party costs and other expenses incurred by us in relation to your travel arrangements; (b) ovettiead charges incurred by us relative to the price of your travel arrangements; and (c) fair compensation for work undertaken by us in relation to your travel arrangements until the time of cancellation and in connection with the processing of any refund. Other Cancellations You may cancel your booking by giving written notice tous. Cancellation must be received in writing and will take effect from the date received by Bench Africa, The following cancellation charges will apply: + More than 60 days before departure: Deposit plus any instalments paid + 60:49 days before departure: 40% + 48-31 days before departure: 60% + 30-0 days before departure: 100% + a fee which is the greater of (a) AUD$200 or (b) 5% of the booking value, to compensate us for processing the cancellation and any associated refund. EEG) cate us on 1300 AFRICA (237 422) These charges can vary subject to the trading terms of our suppliers as some do impose higher cancellation fees on certain tours. The non-issuing of an invoice or non-payment of deposit will not exempt clients from these cancellation and administration fees. We regret we can make no exception to the charges and strongly recommend that comprehensive travel insurance is taken out at time of booking to cover cancellation fees. Cancellation fees and charges will not exceed payments received by us at the time of cancellation. If after the application of these fees and charges there is a surplus of payments you have made to us, we will refund this to you within a reasonable time. You agree that these cancellation fees and charges are reasonable and required to protect our legitimate business interests. Any payments we have made to third parties will only be refunded to you once we have deducted the above cancellation fees and charges and once we have actually recovered the amounts from the thd parties. We will use reasonable endeavours to recover third party payments, but we make no guarantee that we will be able to make recoveries. For group departures, a transfer of a confirmed booking to another departure date is deemed to be cancellation of the original booking, ILLNESS OR VACCINATION STATUS PREVENTING TRAVEL Ife to any tess, suspected ness or falure to stt any required tet (such a PCR opi angen et in relation to Covid-19) or vaccination requirer an airline or other common carrier refuses you carriage; a hotel or vessel refuses to accommodate you; or we or our suppliers (acting reasonably) exclude you from the trip and you are consequently prevented from commencing or continuing your trp, then if you have already commenced your trip, we will provide you with reasonable assistance to arrange alternative travel arrangements or to continue the trp, This wil be at your cost. if you have not commenced your trip then we regret we will not be in a position to provide such assistance. We will not be liable to refund the cost of your trip (or any part of it) because we would have already paid (or committed to pay) suppliers and we would have already performed significant work preparing forthe delivery of your trip and servicing your booking, ‘We will not be responsible for any other loss or loss you incur in connection with your booking (for example, airfares: CANCELLATIONS OR RESCHEDULING BY US Inthese Gooing Contos, he term Force Majeure means an event or evens beyond ou contol and wich Wwe dot have jase Peeve and tes ut fo ened ie () oat dlrs (octueg not limited to , earthquake, landslide, volcanic eruption), adverse weather conditions (including hurricane or ‘onare) high oF tn ve eet (0) war, atmed confit, industrial dispute, civil strife, terrorist activity or the threat of such acts; epidemic, pandemic; (d) any new or change in law, order, decree, rule or regulation of ery goverment author (nud trevel advseis and retin). Force Majeure - Prior to travel If in our reasonable opinion we (either directly or through our employees, contractors, suppliers or agents) oes hat yur arenes cao ely rll rope de 9 Fore Meee Een ten ve at our discretion may elect reschedule your travel arengenet (in whole or in part); and/or cancel your travel arrangements (in whole or in part), in which case our contract with you will terminate (in whole or in part). If we cancel any of your travel arrangements, neither of us will have any claim for damages against the other for the cancelled arrangements. However, we will refund payments attributable to the cancelled travel arrangements less: (a) unrecoverable third party costs and other expenses incurred by us for the cancelled travel arrangements; (b) overhead charges incurred by us relative to the price ofthe cancelled travel arrangements; and (©) fair compensation for work undertaken by us in elation to the cancelled travel arrangements until the time of cancellation and in connection with the processing of any refund, Force Majeure - During trave If due to Force Majeure we cancel travel arrangements after your trp has commenced, we will provide you with a refund of recoverable third party costs for cancelled travel arrangements only. Force Majeure ~ General If we provide you with any alternative services or assistance where travel arrangements are cancelled or rescheduled due to Force Majeure, then you agree the amount to be refunded to you will be reduced by the value of these services and assistance. You acknowledge that the terms in this section are reasonably necessary to protect our legitimate business interests. We strongly encourage you to purchase travel insurance that adequately responds to cancellation and rescheduling risks associated with Force Majeure events Other cancellations If we cancel your travel arrangements for reasons other than Force Majeure, you willbe offered (at your election) a refund of al funds paid, or the offer ofa trip of substantially equal quality if appropriate We will not be responsible to you for any other expenses or loss you incur if your travel arrangements are rescheduled or cancelled whether or not due to Force Majeure. ‘AMENDMENTS BY YOU We will endeavour to accommodate amendments and additional requests. You acknowledge that these may Pt pai orf tu cepacia mfr of oi oie eparhan des a cancellation. An amendment fee of $100 will be levied to cover communication and administration costs for any hangs fo bookings. You wl aso be fequled to ay any atonal costs charged by supplers AMENDMENTS BY US Prior to travel Occasionally, we may need to make amendments or modifications to the itinerary and its inclusions and you acknowledge our right to do this. If we become aware of a significant change to your itinerary or is inclusions prior to the commencement of your trip (where the trip can still proceed), then we wil notify you within a reasonable time. During travel You acknowledge that the itinerary, modes of transport, accommodation and/or the trip inclusions may need te change curing you trip eto local ereumstances beyond ou easoable conto ncluing road endian, poor weather, changes in Tensportschedles, ancl/ar yehicle besklowne. You oofe tht we hee the ig fs pase on ay cass tat we inca for arfaes, vies Or any oter expenses esa esl of any amendment a change to the tour itinerary that we putin place for your benefit in these circumstances. General To the fullest extent permitted by aw, we will not be responsible for any omissions or modifications tothe itinerary or the inclusions due to Force Majeure or other circumstances beyond our control happening after we have accepted your booking, This includes any loss of enjoyment or distress caused by omissions or modifications. If you are entitled to any compensation for any modifications or omissions, then you agree it will be reduced by the value of any alternative services we provide which you accept. We will not be responsible to you for any other expenses or loss you incur resulting from any amendment or change to the itinerary or its inclusions.
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